Grigal, Meg

This introductory chapter in Think College! Postsecondary Education Options for Students with Intellectual Disabilities provides readers with a description of the students and postsecondary education (PSE) services that this book focuses on, a historical and philosophical basis for why students with intellectual disabilities (ID) desire postsecondary opportunities, and changes that have occurred in special education that have led to this desire. Some of the relevant advances in research and practice are also discussed.

This Think College Fast Fact describes the primary findings of a recent study that examined State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies’ engagement with students with disabilities to support postsecondary education.

Few students with disabilities from high-poverty backgrounds attend college. We discuss the effects of disability and growing up in poverty on expectations for postsecondary education attendance. We describe the limiting effects of attending high-poverty high schools on student achievement followed by challenges faced by low-income students with disabilities in accessing and completing college programs including the role of federal student aid programs.

In this study a secondary data analysis was conducted using the Rehabilitation Services Administration's 911 dataset. The findings provide an update on the role of Vocational Rehabilitation in promoting participation in postsecondary education for individuals with intellectual disabilities, by providing data that focuses on youth with intellectual disabilities in comparison with youth with other disabilities, and by highlighting differences across states nationwide (i.e., postsecondary education status upon exiting the VR system).

The FY2015 annual report of data from the Think College National Coordinating Center on the Transition Postsecondary Education Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabiities (TPSID) projects.  These annual reports share data and analysis from data collected from a total of 54 TPSID projects annually from 2010-2015 on the programmatic structures and student characteristics and student outcomes. 

This Credential Action Planning (CAP) tool supports postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disabilities in the development of a meaningful credential that can be earned by the students attending their program. It includes a checklist that takes the user through each step in the process, allowing space for indicating where they are in the process and to take notes on each step.

Think College Insight Brief #25 shares strategies and processes that can be used by programs when they are developing the credential that students will earn.  An accompanying Credential Action Planning Tool is also available from Think College.

This one page infographic shows key characteristics of students attending TPSID programs in 2011-2012 school year, including demographics, courses attended, job and career development activities and housing.

A special issue of the Journal of Policy and Practice on Intellectual Disabilities focusing on postsecondary education for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Articles in this special issue include:

This Fast Fact shares data from the National Coordinating Center related to course enrollment and employment outcomes for students attending the Transition and Postsecondary Education Programs for Students with ID (TPSID) that were funded via the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008.